AIBU to advise anyone who is ever rude to stay out of Germany?

(If we were in Germany right now instead of the UK, my neighbour would not be mowing his lawn, like he does every Sunday morning at 8.30 am. I wish he would go and live in Germany tbh. That'd learn him).

Gosh even our place names are a bit insulting! There is a village in Gloucestershire called Old Sodbury, and another one near it called Little Sodbury.

Yeah, I know I was semi-joking about my mum (she's been here 2 weeks, cut me some slack) but some of your posts are really fucking offensive. Good job you don't plan to visit Germany, what with being so rude and all.

Why don't you name names, both of the podcast or the politician involved in this supposed case?
Well, I googled and the only thing I can find (link below) is a case involving Lauterbach and Habeck, where someone got a suspended six month prison sentence but this wasn't just insults but included open calls for having both of them assassinated. You'd get into trouble for that in the UK as well. The article also mentions that another case (involving Merz) did not lead to a charge because the insult was considered to be within free speech rights and there was no threat issued.
There is one case where an AfD politician got fined for insulting a member of the public on a train.
Also, googling this the Bund and the Laender seem to working towards making insulting politicians not a criminal offence in the first place.
https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2026-02/amtsgericht-trier-beleidigung-robert-habeck-karl-lauterbach-verurteilung-gxe

That’s me NEVER going to Germany then. Oh well 😂

Yes exactly our own hate speech laws arent any different really, only the names are different. If someone feels offended apparently thats all thats needed to 'prove' that someone committed a crime.

😂
I did once, but I think I got away with it....

I was in Brisbane and I crossed the road. A policeman made me go back and wait for the green signal!!!!!

While it might seem quite amusing, the law means Germany can end up with a case like this, where a woman calling a gang rapist a pig is sentenced to prison, while the rapist himself doesn’t serve a day: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/28/german-woman-given-harsher-sentence-than-rapist-for-calling/

Yes I’d like a politer society, but I also think women shouldn’t be criminalised for calling gang rapists pigs. How is that defamation (truth is an absolute defence) and why is it worse than rape??

Do you believe everything someone says in a podcast? You clearly want to paint Germany as some sort of totalitarian hellhole but even in Germany the police can't just search your house because they called someone a Schwachkopf.

We lived in Germany in the '80s and it was certainly the case that using hand gestures to another driver was illegal! A few years later we had a couple of German teachers from a school exchange staying with us, back in UK, and over a few beers we were talking about language etc and they said that becuase German doesn't have a large number of swear words, they tend to use English, though we did a learn a few of their swear words!

Brits don't have a reputation for being rude though. Anything but. They do have a reputation for drinking too much of course.

As the Scots have recently proved by drinking Boston dry!

Germans are far more likely to tell you that you are doing something wrong (especially crossing roads on red lights as a pp said - I have been told off for that at least twice. What I can't grasp about that law is that if a road doesn't have lights I can cross where I want, even if there are cars around, but if it does, I can't cross when I want, even if there aren't cars around).

I agree that you can disagree there and people are still friends. Disagree with someone here and they never speak to you again. But I lived there for 2.5 years and I never heard of this law. I fear retail workers would come unstuck as they are super-rude in a lot of cases.

As for eye-rolling, that's where sunglasses are helpful. They hide eye-rolling and giving people the side-eye ;)

Are German prisons full of people who have been rude to someone?

I suspect not. This sounds about as likely as there being people who've been refused entry to Spain because of the requirement that you need to prove you have thousands of pounds in spending money if you want to go on holiday there.

Extremely controlling Germany. Once again.

So what? 😂

I did driving lessons in Germany and it's emphasised multiple times in the compulsory theory lessons that you must never ever give the finger in road rage as you could be arrested. Also other hand gestures e.g. one that means Dummkopf (sort of an idiot version of dickhead). To me this rather suggests that it's not that uncommon for younger people to use these gestures. Indeed they're common enough there's a school child name for it (Stinkefinger).

I think one thing about German culture is that people are very rarely seethingly angry with each other in the first place. If something happens which bothers anyone, it's totally normal to point it out, politely but firmly and directly. It's not seen as impolite to disagree, either. Most of the time disagreements are sorted out with this lower level robust discussion and nobody bottles things up or escalates. Obviously that happens sometimes, but it seems much rarer.

I think we should introduce the rule here

This law firm is the equivalent of an ambulance chaser.

If you are getting mouthfuls of abuse every day, it’s either you or the area you are in.

I have rarely had mouthfuls of abuse anywhere I have been (and I know I am fucking annoying!)

I work in Germany one week each month and trust me, if this law was enforced 3/4 of Cologne would be in prison. Including everyone in my office. Especially everyone in my office 🤣

It is a civilised place though, people are certainly more polite and socially aware of others than where I live in the Netherlands. You really notice it driving.

(My middle finger gets used a LOT on Dutch roads)

Does Germany have the same shortage of prison places that we do?

I’d imagine that many of these things are, in theory, illegal in England as well. We just don’t have the prison places for them.

When I was on a German exchange in 1995, one girl in our group got caught shoplifting. She found out the hard way that German police take it seriously!

One thing I have heard is that the word “reasonable” appears much more in English law than German law, implying there is more discretion in English law.